Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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398. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of inspections of road passenger bus services involved in the free travel scheme that were conducted by departmental officials by route from 1 January 2015 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [61822/22]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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399. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of complaints received by her Department regarding the operation of the free travel scheme by bus route from 1 January 2015 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [61823/22]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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400. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of investigations conducted by her departmental officials into the operation of the free travel scheme on specific bus routes; and the outcome of such investigations. [61824/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 398, 399 and 400 together.

The free travel scheme was introduced in 1967 to promote social inclusion and prevent the isolation of elderly and disabled people by taking advantage of free space on public transport services.

The scheme permits free travel on most CIE public transport services, Local Link, Luas and a range of services offered by some 77 private operators in various parts of the country for those eligible. The free travel scheme is available to all persons aged over 66, and those under age 66 on qualified payments, who are living legally and permanently in the State.

At the end of November 2022, there were 1,052,792 customers eligible for Free Travel. When spousal and companion pass holders are taken into consideration, the number eligible for free travel increases to over 1.73 million.

Below is a table of survey inspections of bus service participants of the Free Travel scheme, conducted by officials from my Department, by route, from 1 January 2015 to March 2020,. These routes were surveyed to determine the appropriate level of payment for the carriage of Free Travel recipients. During that period, 116 routes were surveyed, as provided in the table below, resulting in fixed monthly payments attributable to each route, following completion of the survey process. Route survey inspections were suspended from March 2020 in response to the prevailing health advice and travel restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic. This activity will resume shortly, as Free Travel passengers availing of their entitlement return to more normal levels.

Since 1 January 2015, following compliance inspections, two routes are no longer included in the Free Travel scheme and during the same period, only one formal complaint was received with the issue now resolved.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.